The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conductor laureate Sir Andrew Davis, Russian-born pianist Evgeny Kissin and a perfectly structured programme made for an evening of musical magic at Roy Thomson Hall on Thursday.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
There was an operatic theme and feel that ran through much of the music, which straddled the late-Romantic bloom of late-19th century orchestral writing and the colourful harmonic adventures of the early years of the 20th century.
It seemed entirely appropriate that Davis, who has been in Toronto for the last couple of months leading the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, to walk south a few blocks to mine his decades of accumulated conducting wisdom with his onetime band, the TSO.
Thursday’s opening flourish, the short, frothy Overture to Maskarade, a 1906 opera by Danish composer Carl Nielsen, was followed by a particularly moving performance by Kissin of one of the most popular pieces in the piano repertoire — Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto.
Kissin, who has been a regular guest with the TSO for two decades, gave a performance that was both showy and sensitive, fully-blooded and lyrical, full of movement yet paced with great elegance.
The 1868 concerto draws its operatic metaphor from ever-shifting moods. When played with care, they result in ever-shifting tempi. The orchestra needs to treat the pianist like a soloist singing a series of arias, which forces everyone to pay close attention. But, after a mildly bumpy start, Davis did a magnificent job of staying together with Kissin.
The pianist rewarded a well-earned hooting and hollering ovation with a work rarely heard in a symphony hall, the sprawling, dance-happy “At the Carnaval,” from Grieg’s Scenes from Folk Life, Op. 19, which dates from the same period as the Concerto, written when the composer was only in his mid-20s.
It was an excellent opportunity for the former child-prodigy pianist, now 41 but still looking like a slightly lost boy, to again show off impeccable technique, a silken touch, and unerring musical good taste.
The conductor and orchestra really came in to their own in two pieces by German composer Richard Strauss: the 1888 symphonic poem Don Juan and an orchestral suite from the opera Der Rosenkavalier, which dates from 1910.
Both scores bristle with thick orchestrations evoking powerful contrasts – often sliding one over the other as they vie for our attention. Davis was masterful at finding the right balance while shaping the volume and flow of the musical narrative.
These pieces also offer a wonderful showcase for solo talents within the orchestra.
Don Juan is all swash and buckle in the beginning, but the music quickly turns to seduction and its inevitable complications.
There is an elegiac quality to Der Rosenkavalier, as if Strauss is anticipating a fond farewell to the golden age of Viennese society. Davis sprinkled fairy dust over this harmonically complex material for an interpretation so powerful as to make hearing the full opera superfluous.
The music on this programme, brimming with Romantic expression, is naturally attractive. But, interpreted with this sort of care and verve, it becomes irresistible.
If you can possibly catch Saturday evening’s encore, drop any other plans and go. These kinds of live symphonic treats don’t come around very often.
For more details and ticket information, click here.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
